


Closure

by AshsHorrorShow



Series: How He Affected Us [1]
Category: Warriors - Erin Hunter
Genre: Closure, Dialogue Heavy, F/F, Family, Friendship, Grief/Mourning, Hurt/Comfort, Past Abuse, This Can Be Read as Platonic TBH
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-15
Updated: 2017-10-15
Packaged: 2019-01-17 19:50:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12372828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AshsHorrorShow/pseuds/AshsHorrorShow
Summary: Mothwing learns that the past can make things complicated.





	Closure

"Mothwing? Is that you?" Leafpool mewed curiously, sliding fluidly out of a set of bushes. She immediately had to cover up her laughter when Mothwing leapt in the air with surprise, her golden fur fluffed bushed. 

When Mothwing recovered and saw it was only Leafpool, she let out a breath of relief before chiding, "Goodness, Leafpool, don't do that! You had me thinking I was one wrong word away from getting my pelt ripped off by a patrol!"

Leafpool couldn't hold it back anymore. Letting out a mrrow of laughter, she flicked the top of her tail across her friend's shoulder, and meowed, "You're telling me?! When I smelled RiverClan, I was about to turn tail and run to warn my Clan about a possible invasion."

Leafpool saw Mothwing's whiskers twitch with amusement, a small smiling playing on her friend's lips. Finally, dipping her head in surrender, conceding, ‘Okay, perhaps maybe we are both in the wrong here.”

“Says the cat who is in ThunderClan territory,” Leafpool pointed out, her tone still friendly. Although she was curious as to what her friend was doing here. Cocking her head, she said, “What brings you over to this side of the Lake, Mothwing? Is Willowpaw alright?” She didn’t see the gray tabby she-cat anywhere.

Alarm shot through her when she saw her Mothwing’s companionable smile suddenly fall, the other medicine cat’s gaze falling to the ground, her ears flattening a little. Voice level though, she mewed reassuringly, “No, no… Willowpaw is alright. She’s tending to Beechfur at the moment. Cut his pad on a stone.”

Leafpool nodded, relief flooding through her at the fact that the young cat was not in any danger. Turning back to her friend, she then said, “That’s good… but that still doesn’t explain what you’re doing here. Do you need something?”

Mothwing’s ears flattened a little more and she was still avoiding looking at Leafpool, “Kind of…”

“Kind of?” Leafpool meowed curiously. 

Mothwing cringed, simply mumbling, “It’s a bit hard to explain… I don’t think you would understand if I told you.”

“Try me,” Leafpool said immediately, “These last few moons have been crazy. It would take a lot to surprise me at this point. So you can be honest with me, Mothwing.” 

Whatever it was, it couldn’t be as bad as having kits with a tom from another Clan.

There was a heavy pause and she saw the reluctance in Mothwing’s gaze. Pressing her nose to Mothwing’s shoulder encouragingly, she urged, “Yes…?”

Mothwing swallowed thickly before looking up to view the Lake and meowing, “I wanted to see where my brother died.” 

Leafpool flinched at that, despite herself. She really hadn’t been expecting that answer. She immediately felt bad for doing so though when Mothwing let out a humorless laugh and looked at her, saying, “I told you it would surprise you.” Before Leafpool could think up an excuse though, Mothwing turned back to the Lake and said, “It was near here that Leopardstar and Brambleclaw said that he had died.”

Leafpool nodded towards a particular spot, saying, “Right over there.” She remembered that day. How could she not? It had been one of the most horrifying scenes she had to witness. Her father bleeding from the neck with a noose around his neck, Brambleclaw whose face was covered with blood and shoulders were torn from where Hawkfrost had attacked him. Then there was Hawkfrost himself, corpse lying in the water, blood spewing out of the gaping hole in his neck and turning the blue Lake water into a shroud of red. She shuddered. 

Mothwing however, didn’t seem to notice. Instead she continued, “I wonder what my mom would think. After all, after my brother Tadpole drowned, she let Hawkfrost and I join RiverClan, both to keep us safe and presumably to learn how to swim. All my mother wanted was to keep us safe. In a Clan, there’s a medicine cat to tend to you when you’re sick and you have Clanmates who are there to protect you from whatever dangers are out there and there is almost always food to eat. Plus, RiverClan made us happy. She probably thought she had found the perfect place for us to stay. Too bad out of all of the things she could predict happening, she didn’t ever think one of us would take the wrong path in life.”

Leafpool was somewhat disturbed by how grim the friendly air had turned, but she remained silent. Something told her that Mothwing needed to get this stuff off of her chest, uninterrupted. So twining her tail with her friend’s to show that she was listening, she let Mothwing continue her spiel. 

“I don’t blame you if you hate my brother or think that I am crazy for even wanting to come here. After all, it was your father and Clanmate he hurt.” Golden eyes narrowing, she said, “To be perfectly honest, I kind of hate him myself.”

Whirling around to face Leafpool with a sad smile, she once again let out a bitter laugh before saying, “That sounds like a terrible thing to say, you know? That I hate my own brother. But it’s true. In a lot of ways I do. Everytime I think about what he did… I just wonder how he could let himself become so awful. How could he do all of those things he did? To me, to Brambleclaw, to Firestar, to so many other cats. I don’t even want to imagine how mom would’ve reacted had she been here. She would’ve been heartbroken.”

Her voice was beginning to wobble with emotion. Mothwing paused and swallowed again before she began again, her voice once again clear, “I… I’ve heard cats say they weren’t surprised my brother turned out to be a traitor. After all, he had Tigerstar’s blood running through his veins. It was only a matter of time they said. They said that Leopardstar was a fool for trusting the kin of Tigerstar in the first place. And to be honest, that made me question myself a bit After all, I have the blood of TWO traitors running through my veins now.”

Leafpool opened her mouth to protest. She wanted to say that Mothwing was nothing like Tigerstar or Hawkfrost and that Brambleclaw and Tawnypelt were also Tigerstar’s kin and they were both perfectly good cats, but Mothwing cut her off before she could say anything of the sorts.

“But then I realized that is probably what Hawkfrost would’ve wanted me to think. That I am destined to be like him. And I guess the best revenge I have is to prove him wrong.” She said that last part with a small smile, one of her ears flicking. 

Leafpool found herself smiling with her, pressing her body close with the other she-cat's and meowing, “Very eloquently worded, Mothwing.” 

Mothwing’s whiskers twitched with amusement at that, her gaze fond.

But the smile disappeared again as she gazed at the Lake again. “But… foolish as it may be, as bad as of a cat he was, I miss him.” Her voice wobbled near the end but she continued, “I tell myself I shouldn’t, but I do. At least I miss the cat who he used to be. He was the cat who grieved with me and comforted me when Tadpole died. He was my only friend when I first joined RiverClan and most of the other cats didn’t know how to feel about us. He was the cat who defended me when some of the apprentices from other Clans tried to bully me at our first Gathering. He was the cat who pointed out that the path of the warrior might not be the right one for me, and that perhaps my path laid on becoming a medicine cat.” 

Looking at Leafpool, she meowed, “My brother was awful… but he didn’t always used to be. And I can’t help but wish that things could’ve gone differently.” Shaking her head and looking back to the ground, she said, “Sorry. I don’t think you understand. I don’t blame you. I barely understand.”

“No… I think I do to an extent,” Leafpool meowed honestly. While she couldn’t say she had been trapped in a situation like Mothwing’s, she didn’t know how she would feel if Squirrelflight had went down a darker path. If she would only see her sister as nothing but a complete monster or not. It was hard for her to even imagine. She felt nothing but fondness towards her litter-mate. Would those feelings really burn away into cinders if her sister did something wrong? She didn’t know. She didn’t think they would completely at least.

She and Squirrelflight just had built too many good memories together for her to fully view her as evil.

Mothwing gave her a skeptical look, as if she didn’t fully believe that claim, but she didn’t push the issue. Instead, she looked up at the sky and said, “You know I don’t believe in StarClan and the Dark Forest and all that. But Hawkfrost had. And wrong and selfish as it may be, I… I kind of hope if StarClan does exist that they saw the kind of cat my brother was before and… forgive him.” Turning to Leafpool, voice thick, she meowed, “I’m so sorry, Leafpool. I know what he did to your father, but he’s my brother-”

Leafpool leaned closer to her and meowed, “It’s okay, Mothwing. I don’t blame you for his mistake… and kin is kin.” 

Mothwing looked unsure about that but she looked at the exact spot Leafpool had nodded to where Hawkfrost had fell over dead, and said, “Do… do you mind if I just sit here and think in silence for a moment? I need… closure on this.”

“Of course,” Leafpool agreed. 

Standing up to her feet, she brushed her tail on Leafpool’s chest, gaze sad as she said, “Come with me? I don’t want to be alone.”

Leafpool nodded once more and the two of them walked over to the spot, Mothwing laying down in the water to be extra close, her head bowed. Leafpool tried to ignore the cold water lapping her paws and rested her tail over her friend’s shoulders. After a while of silence, Leafpool found herself bowing her head despite herself, a feeling of peace and somberness coming over her.

Together, the two of them sat there and grieved a cat who didn’t deserve it.

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally meant for FemSlash February. 
> 
> ... Yeah, I am a little late.
> 
> But for a while, I was never happy with how I wrote this. But I recently wrote up this up and I enjoyed it, so here we are. Kind of helps my friend has been talking about these three cats in particular with me. : 'D I always wished they explored more about Mothwing's feelings about Hawkfrost after he died. 
> 
> This is very dialogue-heavy for me... and I actually liked how I managed it, especially since most of the dialogue was being said by only one cat. 
> 
> As always, critique is wanted and I hope you enjoy.
> 
> And gosh, why are like 90 percent of my Warrior fics so depressing? LOL.


End file.
